A Field Guide to DTK's Art Walk

It is with such excitement that on behalf of the businesses of Downtown Kitchener, we, the Downtown Kitchener BIA, welcome you to the DTK Art Walk!

“Kitchener has a heart of grit that everywhere doesn’t”.

Downtown Kitchener is driven by the community and strives to be a place where people can connect through friends, culture, food, retail and entertainment.

In March 2020, everything changed with the rise of COVID-19. In the midst of uncertain times, the Downtown Kitchener BIA wanted to give the community something beautiful and long-lasting, that would reignite a passion for the Downtown we all love.

The Business Improvement Area, better known as the BIA, formed a partnership with the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery to create an outdoor museum. Among past installations of art and murals, you will also find new outdoor pieces on buildings throughout the core.

These creative works provide the opportunity to visit and connect with Downtown Kitchener and enhance a sense of community and local cultural development. This initiative will serve to beautify your Downtown and bring us back together, at a distance, through local art.

Whether you venture downtown to shop, dine, or just take a walk, we hope you find joy in the installations you cross paths with on your journey.

Change is constant and inevitable but DTK will continue to evolve and be a place for everyone.

- Together, We Own It!

Welcome to the DTK Art Walk, an exploration of creative works throughout the core. With this Field Guide comes an opportunity to embark on an experiential journey unique to all. We thank all of the artists that came together in collaboration to make this a reality. Your drive and passion have made our community a place that resonates and thrives on creativity and individuality.

Share your experience

#DTKArtWalk | @DTKitchener

ART WALK INDEX

62.

65. The Tile Project

67. Pedestrian

68. Blueberry Pine

69. Synergy

70. Joy

71. In The Clouds

APORIA

Artist: Ed Zelenak

Location: 200 Frederick Street

Medium: Fibreglass sculpture

Year: 1978

Noted artist Ed Zelenak designed this controversial twisted orange fibreglass sculpture that sits on the lawn outside of the old courthouse, given as a gift from the province in 1980. The piece has been part of our community landscape for 40 years with little information provided. As former Kitchener councillor and culture advocate Jean Haalboom speculated in an opinion piece for Kitchener Post back in 2017, was Aporia perhaps “ … meant to lighten up the 1977, three-storey, windowless concrete building, a mid-century modern example of the Brutalist style of architecture [of the courthouse].”

Zelenak’s artwork explores the condition of the inner self — the dichotomies of life, and the interplay of intuition and logic through the use of the familiar iconography of trees, crosses, stairs, arrows and circles. Born in 1940, Zelenak studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design from 1957-1959, and resumed his art studies in 1960 at the Fort Worth Art Centre and Barsch Kelly Atelier in Dallas, Texas. He held the position of Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the University of Western Ontario, London, ON from 1979-1988. He has been a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts since 1976. Zelenak’s work is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada; Art Gallery of Ontario; Musee Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland; Czech Museum of Fine Arts, Prague; the Chicago Athenaeum, Chicago; and The Ukrainian Museum, New York.

CANOE AND HERON

Artist: August Swinson (@augustillustrated), created for Lowland Properties Group

Location: 151 Frederick Street

Medium: Digital illustration

Year: 2021

August Swinson grew up on the small Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation reserve. Early memories of life on the reserve have influenced his work as an illustrator. Swinson remembers nostalgic images of chopping and carrying wood and water, canoeing with his Grandfather or scrambling over rock with his siblings on the islands that dot the lakes of the Kawarthas. With a career in graphic design, he now spends time in his studio located in Kitchener.

An illustration combining a favourite activity and a favourite bird. You don’t have to go far to be on the lake or to see these magnificent birds.

BECOMING ALLUVIUM (STILL)

Artist: Thao Nguyen Phan (@thaonguyenphan_)

Location: KWAG, 101 Queen Street North Medium: Digital still from single-channel colour video on vinyl Year: 2019

Thao Nguyen Phan (Phan Thảo Nguyên) lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Trained as a painter, Phan is a multimedia artist whose practice encompasses video, painting and installation. While completing her MFA in Chicago, Phandiscovered film as an art form. Drawing from literature, philosophy and daily life, Phan observes ambiguous issues in social conventions and history. In addition to her work as a multimedia artist, she is co-founder of the collective Art Labor, which explores cross disciplinary practices and develops art projects that benefit the local community. Phan is expanding her “theatrical fields,” including what she calls performance gesture and moving images.

Informed by Phan’s research into the Mekong River in Vietnam and the cultures that it nurtures, Becoming Alluviumis an allegorical tale of the environmental and social changes caused by the expansion of agriculture, overfishing and the economic migration of farmers to urban areas.

PLANTING ONE ANOTHER

Location: Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, 101 Queen Street North Medium: Wood, native plant species

Year: Ongoing

Mike MacDonald (1941-2006) was a Mi’kmaq artist whose works primarily focused on the environment, incorporating plants and animals into many of his pieces. From the late 1980s into the early 1990s, MacDonald recorded testimony and created visual documents for the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en during their land claim challenges. While on location for a video shoot near Kitwanga, British Columbia, in an area threatened by clear-cut logging, MacDonald’s encounters with butterflies inspired his understanding of their connection to medicinal plants and healing. This was the seed of his numerous butterfly gardens created from 1995 to 2003 across the country. These gardens made spaces for contemplation and invited slow looking and interaction with medicinal plants.

MacDonald designed and built more than 20 gardens across the country, and for each space, he drew from Indigenous ancestral practices contributing to his extensive botanical knowledge. MacDonald understood that native pollinators are particularly attracted to native plants in order to eat, rest and breed. In the catalogue for the 2003 Shore/Lines exhibition, MacDonald explained that “(A)ll of the native plants that butterflies use have traditional medicinal uses.” MacDonald’s gardens provide a rich refuge for medicinal perennial plants (which return every spring) native to the region, butterflies and other pollinators, inviting audiences to take time for contemplating and imagining healthier and more reciprocal futures. The best time to view these plants is between June and October annually.

Artist: Mike MacDonald (@kwartgallery) (Photography courtesy of KWAG)

PROTECTING THE MEMORY

Artist: Timothy Schmalz (@timschmalz)

Location: Civic District Park (across from CITS), Margaret and Queen Street

Medium: Bronze casting

Year: 2007

Ten bronze Firefighter helmets, each bearing the name of a fallen Firefighter are part of the work.

Schmalz’s monument shows Firefighters rushing to the scene under the cover of angels’ wings while the angels kneel in sorrow for the Firefighters’ fallen brothers. The reverse side of the monument shows an angel praying for the fallen Firefighters with a cityscape safely sheltered in its wings.The perspective of the city is from high above as if the fallen Firefighters are looking down from heaven on the city they sacrificed their lives to protect.

PAST|PRESENT|FUTURE

Artist: Ernest Daetwyler (@ernestdaetwyler)

Location: 20 Weber Street East Medium: Mixed media (limestone, bricks, steel) sculpture

Year: 2018

On September 30, 2014, Regional Council approved the commissioning of Past | Present | Future by Ernest Daetwyler for installation at the Former County Courthouse at 20 Weber St. E., Kitchener.

Daetwyler’s series of seven spheres of different materials and sizes was purposeful — to get people thinking about evolution and the notion of time, while also involving Indigenous women from the Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener. The three limestone spheres refer to a distant past. A larger sphere is made of bricks, taken from some old downtown buildings. The reflective, steel sphere represents the present.

The piece makes a strong artistic statement in line with the project theme, which is the evolution of the site and of the Regional government and complements the site, the historically significant courthouse building, and nearby Governor’s House and Gaol.

People are encouraged to visit the site to engage with the artwork and enjoy the public space. The artwork is located on the Queen Street side of the property next to the Ontario Heritage Trust plaques.

FOOTPRINTS

Location: Downtown Community Centre, 35 Weber Street West

Medium: Cast Portland cement

Year: 2005

A whimsical take on creating paths and storytelling in a literal footstep sense. Using historic samples of footwear that had been donated to the Artifacts Project by Tom Kaufman, President of Kaufman Footwear. The samples would have been made in the King Street plant Downtown Kitchener. The imprints suggest footsteps leading to the Community Centre.

Artist: Nicholas Rees

ANVIL

Location: Kitchener City Hall (outside Duke Street entrance), 200 King Street West Medium: Ferrocement

Year: 1996

Nicholas Rees’ piece symbolizes Kitchener’s industrial past and hopes for the future.

The anvil acknowledges the industrial history of Kitcheners as expressed by the City’s motto,” Ex Industria prosperitas” translated to “The industry success”. Also, it resonates with the Kitchener Industrial Artifacts Project which was founded in 1996 by Rees in partnership with the City of Kitchener. The Artifacts Project celebrates the local industry and its history, where the placement of selected pieces resonates on many levels connecting their significance in that specific location.

Artist: Nicholas Rees

HORSEPOWER

Artists: Brad Golden and Lynne Eichenberg

Location: Kitchener City Hall (outside Duke Street entrance), 200 King Street West

Medium: Mixed media (glass, iron, steel, aluminum)

Year: 1993

Commissioned to celebrate the opening of the new City Hall in 1993, this piece recognizes the historical role industry played in Kitchener’s development.

This sculpture was inspired by the well-preserved stock of industrial buildings within the city. The project features a composition of four large machinery wheels complimented by a monument glazing screen. The screen facing City Hall displays images selected from the city archives on the surface. A large frosted image of a regional scene faces the countryside beyond.

Stainless steel letters are inlaid in the surfaces of the two benches within the sodded area of the artwork that spells “Industria” and “Prosperitas” – both words taken from the City of Kitchener’s motto which are representative of the values of the City and the metaphor of the artwork.

UNTITLED (LIKE TWO SHIPS IN THE LIGHT)

Artist: Ioana Dragomir (@dragomir.ioana.dragomir)

Location: 30 Water Street North

Medium: Collage

Year: 2021

Ioana holds an Honours BA in studio practice from the University of Waterloo, an MA in Art History and Curatorial Studies from the University of Western Ontario and is currently an MFA candidate at Concordia University. Her work has been recognized by the KW Arts Awards and the Women’s Art Association of Hamilton (WAAH), among others.

Dragomir is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice combines her interest in writing and literary analysis with drawing, collage, textiles, ceramics and installation. In this work, fragments of paintings from a Sotheby’s catalog of Dutch Golden Age masterpieces are collaged in order to create a new image. The prevalence of lush flowers and naval scenes in the catalog both reference the Dutch economy in the 1600s, as well as the present-day art market in which the paintings are now circulating.

*This project was made possible through the generous support of the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4).*

INDOORS OUT

Artist: Stephanie Scott (@sstephaniesscott)

Location: LCBO Courtyard, King Street West

Medium: Acrylic paint on plywood

Year: 2019

Stephanie Scott is an Illustrator and Designer specializing in murals and environmental branding. With an education in Fine Art and Graphic Design, her work unifies her skills in both traditional and digital media.

Based on childhood nostalgia, the bright and inviting colour palette of Scott’s mural brings a sense of personality throughout, and is intended to brighten and be an inviting piece in the LCBO Courtyard. The simple shapes and strong lines provide a pleasant unifying feeling while sitting at the outdoor lounging space.

DOWNTOWN KITCHENER

OUTDOOR MURAL

Artist: Trisha Abe (@trishaabe)

Location: Across from Kitchener City Hall

Medium: Acrylic paint on plywood

Year: 2018

Trisha Abe is a painter, illustrator, and muralist based in Kitchener, Ontario. Abe’s dive into the world of visual arts was sudden and intense. She is heavily influenced by female portraiture and her work embraces the human form through minimalism and celebrates strong character, diversity, and feminine energy.

Abe aims to breakdown complex, multidimensional beings into their most basic elements. Her painted murals for a number of clients include: Shopify, Inkbox Toronto, Communitech, and the Cities of Kitchener and Waterloo.

Cited from Abe’s website

NEON BLVD

Artist: Vintage Black Canada™ (@vintageblackcanada)

Location: 1 Young Street

Medium: Photograph c/o Errol Starr Francis

Year: 1987

Aaron T. Francis is a doctoral candidate at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, a multidisciplinary artist and the curator of Vintage Black Canada™ — a multidisciplinary creative and collaborative initiative founded in 2019 by Aaron — with the express purpose of documenting the transnational modern history of the African Diaspora in Canada and all they have richly contributed to Canada’s cultural milieu.

Having on numerous occasions conveyed the importance of memorializing candid, joyful moments for Black families — with this image, Francis takes poetic license to lovingly convey the equal importance in celebrating moments of local Black triumph. Neon Blvd, a title taken from a song on his 1989 Juno Award winning album Temple of Love, captures the artist’s uncle Errol in just such a moment — one that his uncle might describe as fleeting, according to Francis — given his not uncomplicated relationship with the Canadian entertainment industry as a Jamaican-born Black man from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.

*This project was made possible through the generous support of the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4).*

WELCOME // WE ARE ALL THE SAME // GRANDCHILDREN’S JOY

Artist: Pamela Rojas (@p.rojas.art)

Location: 102 King Street West

Medium: Mixed media mural

Year: 2010 – 2012

Pamela Rojas believes in and enjoys creating art as an individual artist. As a community art project where she integrates people in the process of executing the work, her experience teaches that art can be a vivid experience for different groups of people, and it also creates community bridges.

Rojas’ designs are inspired by a mix of Latin American muralists and Folk Art Style. Her painting presents us with a magical, peaceful, serene world with candour and imaginative spontaneity. She explores vivid colours, emotions, and the fusion of ceramic details. The essence and the character of Rojas’ style sprouts from the innocence of the mind, and simplicity, which removes constraints and allows more liberty in composition — transmitting a sense of happiness and surprise in a world as though seen by people for the first time.

CELESTIAL MECHANICS

Artist: Kate Wilson (@kate.wilson.eidetics), CAFKA (@cafkabiennial)

Location: 102 King Street West

Medium: Acrylic paint on brick

Year: 2009 Kate Wilson’s practice has focused on large-scale wall drawing installations, having recently completed a drawing entitled Microbial Baroque at the Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery, Halifax Nova Scotia. In collaboration with Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area (CAFK+A) a non-profit, artist-run organization that presents a free biennial exhibition of contemporary art in the public spaces of the City of Kitchener and across the Region of Waterloo.

Celestial Mechanics is a large scale architecturally site-specific wall drawing. Wilson’s drawings flirt with abstraction and recall macro views of botanical and astronomical forms. They take on the appearance of intimate, colourful, doodles that have been magnified to larger proportions.

Cited from cafka.org

BETWEEN THE ACTS

Artist: Jane Buyers

Location: 36 King Street West

Medium: Bronze

Year: 2002

Between the Acts is a bronze relief representing part of the drapery and hem of a brocade theatre curtain, which appears to be billowing through the brick facade of the building from the stage inside.

The King Street Theatre, similar to most contemporary theatres, does not have a stage curtain. Nevertheless, the curtain remains a powerful symbol of the border between everyday life and the heightened experience that is the theatre. The image of a curtain embodies the anticipation, the excitement, the sense of magic and transformation that lie at the core of the theatrical experience.

Since Theatre & Company has since closed, this artwork serves as a bit of a historical document of what was once there.

30 ONTARIO ALLEY

Artist: Andrew Thom (@rapspray)

Location: Show & Tell, 30 Ontario Street

Medium: Mixed media mural and spray paint

In the alleyway at the side of his coffee shop, Show & Tell, Andrew Thom expanded and created this piece to run the entire length of the building. This piece brought together by three smaller pieces brings exploration to letter-forms. It accents, juxtapositions between flat, monochromatic colour palettes seen in the lettering and 3-dimensional atmosphere of the background.

Thom’s typographical and shape-driven mural gives viewers an opportunity to come to their own conclusion on the context of the piece as a whole. His use of heavy line work to create the illusion of a light source allows the piece to pop off the wall. It’s this form of art that inspires Thom to continue exploring different avenues, letter-forms, colour and artistic culture.

RIBBED PLANT-LEAP

Artist: Meghan Harder (@meghan.harder)

Location: 48 Ontario Street North

Medium: Coloured pencil on paper

Year: 2021

Meghan Harder is an interdisciplinary artist from St. Catharines, Ontario. Harder received her MFA from the University of Guelph. She was the 2015 Eastern Comma artist-in-residence at the rare Charitable Research Reserve, and has completed residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Ox-Bow School of Art and the Vermont Studio Centre (VSC). She has exhibited at The Lincoln Museum and Cultural Centre in Jordan, The Plum, Toronto, the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (KWAG), Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area (CAFKA) and Peanuts Gallery in Vancouver. Harder is also a 2019 Arts Awards Waterloo Region winner.

Meghan Harder makes art in the form of drawing, writing, sound, sculpture and installation. She uses found artifacts of cultural heritage, local history, popular culture, personal and familial memory and transforms them using various rulebased and intuitive processes. To describe this process, Harder uses the analogy of a mnemonic for a birdsong — a phrase memorized by birders to identify species in the field through sound. The mnemonic phrase tells you nothing about what the bird is trying to communicate but preserves some qualities of its voice.

*This project was made possible through the generous support of the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4).*

THE ELECTROHOME

Location: Side of Duke Street parking garage

Medium: Mixed media and plaster

Year: 1995

The mural depicts Electrohome Ltd., previously a prominent manufacturer of appliances and electrical equipment.

Set in the 1900s this mural showcases a large balloon with examples of Electrohome’s products and family set in the middle of the balloon. The baby in the piece portrays the son of Arthur B. Pollock, Founder of the Electrohomes. Expanding on family ties and connection to one another, this mural provides strong leading lines and captures the viewer’s eye within the balloon.

Artist: Christina Peori

GOOD MESSAGES

Artist: Alanah Jewell, Morning Star Designs (@morning.star.designs)

Location: 8 Queen Street North

Medium: Digital illustration

Year: 2022

Alanah Astehtsi Otsisohkwa Jewell is a bear clan artist from Oneida Nation of the Thames. She uses digital illustrations, acrylic paintings on wood and canvas and mural work to bring Indigenous art and representation to urban spaces. She is also a community organizer, and hosts Indigenous Art Markets in her home City of Kitchener, Ontario.

Good Messages is meant to encourage Indigenous people to reconnect with their younger and/or troubled self. It’s a difficult but beautiful reminder that: regardless of the stage of life or struggle we are in, we are always enough. Our existence makes our ancestors proud, and we will always attract good things. We all have healing to do — speaking to our inner child with Good Messages helps us feel connection to our identities, and helps heal who we were as children.

*This project was made possible through the generous support of the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4).*

THE GOUDIE MURAL

Artist: The Firm

Location: Goudies Lane (entrance through Queen Street North)

Medium: Mixed media mural and spray paint

Year: 2017

This mural was brought to life by The Firm, a mural collective who captured the vision of Downtown Kitchener through live music and art. As it was completed, people enjoyed live entertainment from a band performing beside the wall in the alcove where the mural resides.

GOUDIES LANE N º 5

Artist: Jordan Warmington (@jordan_war)

Location: Goudies Lane (entrance through Queen Street North)

Medium: Mixed media mural

Year: 2017

Jordan Warmington’s tattooing style, and use of flat and punchy colours, are clearly translated into this mural. Bold lines and a four-colour palette allow for a captivating piece that highlights a little something for everyone and creates a depth and sense of movement.

GOUDIES LANE N º 4

Location: Goudies Lane (entrance through Queen Street North)

Medium: Mixed media mural and spray paint

Year: 2017

Andrew Thom finds inspiration through a wide range of aspects when it comes to his street art, finding the lines and highlights through light, movement and a selected colour palette.

Thom works with trending and popular colour palettes accompanied by letter exploration, deviating from traditional understandings of how letter-forms work with each other. Thom pushes the boundaries of what letter-forms and light sources can do. He enjoys the whole process of exploration and lets himself and viewers rationalize and interpret his work from their own perspectives. Whether that is through following the map of movement designed by Thom or enjoying the colour integration with its surroundings, his pieces are yours to discover.

Artist: Andrew Thom (@rapspray)

GOUDIES LANE N º 3

Artist: Stephanie Boutari (@stephboutari)

Location: Goudies Lane (entrance through Queen Street North)

Medium: Mixed media mural and exterior acrylic paint

Year: 2017

Stephanie Boutari is known for her large scale architecturally-inspired pieces, accompanied by vibrant colours, a wide range of depth and detail.

Boutari emphasizes her work with strong lines and uniform shapes that join one to another in a harmonious balance between colour, structure, depth of field, gestalt and other elements and principles of design. Focusing on gradients, this piece allows the brick to take on a sense of breaking through a visual fourth wall.

GOUDIES LANE N º 2

Artist: Tori Ward

Location: Goudies Lane (entrance through Queen Street North)

Medium: Mixed media mural and acrylic paint

Year: 2017

An almost sketchbook-like style, this mural provides a nice punch of contrast with the simple black and white figures planting and taking care of nature. Along with three children, the poem helps tell the story to bring strong balance and relatable qualities when viewing this mural, not shying away from topics that are relevant to all viewers.

GOUDIES LANE N º 1

Artist: Clare Binnie (@binnieclareart),

Underground Gallery (@undergroundgallery)

Location: Goudies Lane (entrance through Queen Street North)

Medium: Mixed media mural and acrylic paint

Year: 2017

This organic and free-flowing form takes on an interpretation of the city as a whole. Using strong use of colour and movement, the viewer’s eye can move throughout the piece, taking notice of the buildings and clock tower of Victoria Park. This piece allows for the viewer’s own interpretation.

QUEEN STREET PLACEMAKING PROJECT

Artist: Designed through community engagement

Location: Intersection of Queen Street and King Street

Medium: Duratherm on asphalt

Year: 2020

The design in the Queen Street corridor helps mark the importance of the Queen Street and King Street intersection as the centre of downtown Kitchener, and signals the space is a place for people, not just cars. It also helps to provide traffic calming and connectivity for pedestrians crossing Queen Street via either Halls Lane or Goudies Lane. This work is part of the Queen Street reconstruction that includes the redesign of Vogelsang Green.

The design itself is a colourful, abstract piece that works in a series of icons related to the area, including crowns symbolizing King and Queen streets, a heart to symbolize the heart of downtown, opera masks and more.

TRAVELLER, MANY HIDDEN MOONS AGO...

Artist: Akshata Naik (@akshata.naik)

Location: 10 King Street West

Year: 2021 – 2022

Akshata Naik is a contemporary visual artist, educator, researcher and administrator based in Toronto, Canada. Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Naik’s works reflect upon her lived experiences of moving homes, cities and countries. Through a lens of immigration, war, displacement, home and belonging, Naik works towards co-creating with her viewers an immersive experience. Naik’s interactive art installations consist of drawing, painting, ephemeral temporary sculptures and art in virtual reality.

As a newcomer to Canada Naik became active in the arts scene, soon after arriving in 2017, widely showing her interactive art with several communities across Toronto. Naik has exhibited internationally in North America, Europe and Asia, including solo and group exhibitions at galleries in the UK, Canada, and India.

This series of work was inspired during a global pandemic by thoughts around travelling to another planet, universe, space, light, fantasy and the curiosity of the unknown. This is an attempt at exploring the curious spaces that the artist often intrudes into while daydreaming. The artist is making an inquiry of the innumerable layers of the world — that all living beings and non-living objects coexist around universal movements and dynamics. Through these digital works, the artist is creating and translating that feeling of a traveller, from many hidden moons ago, now and in the future.

FLOWERS OF THE SEA: OCTOPUS GARDEN

Artist: Liz Skelton (@phatlizzardart)

Location: 70 King Street East

Medium: Acrylics on canvas

Year: 2021

Liz Skelton is a South African-born artist based in Waterloo, Ontario. Her artistic journey began in Cape Town, where she was a professional ceramic artist, making, firing and hand-painting both functional and decorative ware.

In 1997, the family immigrated to Canada and Skelton was drawn back into the arts where she fell in love with abstract art and all things acrylic.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, she became a full-time professional artist.

This piece called Octopus Garden is part of Skelton’s Flowers of the Sea body of work. The artist loves the process of creating using form and colour, and the freedom to paint without justifying a reason or purpose — leaving interpretation open to the viewer. Skelton’s artwork is deeply influenced by her past: using brilliant tones of saturated colour that reflect the heat of Africa, as well as colours that reflect the softer hues of the ever changing Atlantic.

*This project was made possible through the generous support of the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4).*

STORIES OF NEW BEGINNINGS

Artist: Pamela Rojas (@p.rojas.art)

Location: 256 King Street East

Medium: Mixed media mural

Year: 2014

Celebrating 14 years of providing support to newly arrived refugees this mural is filled with vibrant colours and the narration of a strong cultured community. Spanning the length of the building, this mural allows you to gravitate to the warm colours, inviting scenery and sense of community.

SWEET PEA

Artist: Walter Gibson

Location: Kitchener Market (Eby Street), 300 King Street East

Medium: Terrazzo tille, glass, mosaic tile, copper, concrete (fountain)

Year: 2004

This elegant and playful fountain, stretching 33 feet long, is in the shape of a pea pod. It functions as a seating area, and the centre of the fountain features running water over five copper peas. The fountain benches were designed out of traditional terrazzo glass; the colourful higher back area is Byzantine glass mosaic. This fountain was created for when the market was opening at the current location, making references to the food and farming.

THE MARKET WALK

Artist: Nicole Beno (@nicole_beno)

Location: Eby Street Crossway

Medium: Thermoplastic road paint

Year: 2019

Inspired by the sounds, smells, sights, tastes, atmosphere and culture of the market on a busy Saturday morning, Beno created a mural that spans the width of Eby Street. Tapping into what Beno’s visits to the market are like, she utilizes her style of abstraction and colour theory, line, unity, shape and movement to represent the vibrancy of the market — capturing the organicness, and seasonality of it all.

THE GERMAN HERITAGE OF THE KITCHENERWATERLOO REGION

Artist: Gus Froese

Location: Market Lane entrance to the Kitchener Market, 300 King Street East

Medium: Mixed media mural

Year: 1998

Constructed as if reading an old newspaper, this piece showcases the German heritage of the City. Capturing a couple dancing, and melding both historic and present-day images. The colour palette used is influenced by German culture, with rich earthy tones and aspects showcased in traditional German clothing. The work is encased with a decorative border that lets the piece blend organically onto the market wall.

DOWNTOWN PRESENCE

Artist: Monte Wright

Location: Market Lane entrance to the Kitchener Market, 300 King Street East Medium: Mixed media mural

This mural uses a colour palette that resonates with strength, honour and humble caring feelings. The story told through the piece leads the viewer’s eyes to the centre and back out to the other side of the mural. The movement allows for every element to be showcased in its own unique way.

KITCHENER MARKET PIAZZA

Artist: Melika Hashemi (@melihashemi), Meg Harder (@meg.harder)

Location: Kitchener Market piazza, 300 King Street East

Medium: Paint

Year: 2019

Melika Hashemi’s earlier works are reimaginations of aspects of Iranian culture experienced in hyphenated ways, and her current works reflect concerns with marginality, resistance and her relationship to “home.” An aspect of Meg Harder’s work considers the social history of Fraktur Folk Art — imaginative, illuminated calligraphy made by early Mennonite settlers to Ontario.

Hashemi and Harder were drawn together by the aesthetic resonances between Persian and Mennonite visual culture. This mural design mixes motifs and patterns from each cannon, to create a colourful and eye-catching hybrid space that reflects the modern intercultural realities of Kitchener. The abstract design reveals small scenes compiled from historic Fraktur and Persian miniature illustrations. Botanical motifs and highly stylized text are featured in both Persian and Mennonite artwork. This mural will also feature site-responsive poetry by Seth Razlaff and Bashar Jabbour. Together, these different elements blend in celebration of food, culture and gathering.

THE MURAL OF BELONGING

Artist: Pamela Rojas (@p.rojas.art), August Swinson (@augustillustrated), Mono Gonzalez (@monogonzalezchile), The Firm (@thefirm.murals), Ian Pierce (@artesekeo), coordinated by Neruda Arts

Location: Charles Street near Cameron Heights

Medium: Mixed media mural

Year: 2017

Neruda Arts had the vision to create a huge mural representing the desire and need to belong to a community. This ambitious concept was realized, and the 150-foot mural, to coincide with Canada’s 150-year celebrations, was installed on Charles Street in Kitchener in September 2017. The mural came to fruition as the amazing local and international artists funnelled the skills of over 150 talented members of our community.

By recognizing that Canada is a nation of immigrants living on Indigenous land, through this mural, they explored the Indigenous, multicultural and Canadian identity by visually narrating the story of belonging. The activity itself brought different cultural communities of all ages together to create a piece of beautiful art, from varied perspectives — about the need to belong, the celebration of equity, social justice and respect for cultural diversity on this land we all call home.

ANIMANIMUS

Artist: Ted Fullerton

Location: Corner of King and Madison Street

Medium: Bronze

Year: 1999

Animanimus celebrates Kitchener’s proud tradition and heritage of manufacturing, retail, hospitality community and symbolically utilizes the universal image of the chair. Animanimus is a created word from two psychological terms: anima, animus. It represents a fusion of the soul, spirit, and hospitality.

A two-part sculpture comprising a figure elevated on a pole accompanied by a chair element.

IN THE GARDEN

Artist: Stephanie Scott (@sstephaniesscott)

Location: 9 Eby Street East

Medium: Latex paint on brick

Year: 2020

Stephanie Scott works closely with clients to create designs that are tailored to them and feel like an extension of their brand. Some of her work can be seen around Waterloo Region at Catalyst 137, Wilfred Laurier University, 44 Gaukel and St. Jacobs Village.

Starting each project with an open mind and a blank slate helps Scott create a custom design for each space. Add to this, endless curiosity, which fuels the research phase of every project. Scott loves any excuse to dig through archives or get lost in books. She continuously collects all kinds of resources and inspiration, waiting for the perfect time to use them. Regardless of what style or subject matter she is working with, when it comes to public art, Scott’s goal is always to create an uplifting atmosphere that can be enjoyed by anyone.

TREES FOR THE FOREST 1

Artist: Eileen MacArthur (@artsalvage.ca)

Location: 243 King Street East

Medium: Oil on canvas

Year: 2021

Eileen MacArthur completed an MFA in painting at the University of Guelph in 2005 and a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2003. She has exhibited her work in Canada, the United States and China. In 2009, she received special mention as a finalist in the Kingston Prize Canadian portrait competition, and was named as a finalist in The Kingston Prize 2011 competition. Her work was included in 2009 at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (KWAG) biennial and in 2010 at the XX5 Fisch Haus invitational biennial in Wichita. She has exhibited at the Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center in Cincinnati, and her work was included in their International PAINTING Annual (INPA) V4 and V9.

Trees for the Forest is a series of paintings completed in 2021 that incorporate pre-existing and found images that have been reconfigured into a single painting. Certain elements have been removed from the found images in order to obscure the original context. The trees act as individual ‘portraits’ pulled from a larger mass of images.

*This project was made possible through the generous support of the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4).*

RECOLLECTION & TRANSFORMATION OF MEMORY

Artist: Allan MacKay

Location: Speaker’s Corner, 2 Benton Street

Medium: Stainless steel, ceramic tile and granite

Year: 2009

By incorporating literal and abstract images, based on source pictures of the current site, an interactive experience is provided for the viewer. The sculpture is a combination of abstract coloured porcelain tiles, reflected and transformed by a stainless-steel pillar acting like a mirror — into a recognizable image of the site before the modernization process. This perspective technique in visual arts is called anamorphosis. The granite walls contain a series of etched literal and abstract images, as well as text placed strategically on the sculpture and wall elements. The text reinforces the notion of public voice and the purpose of the site (Speaker’s Corner) through repeating phrases: “SPEAKING PUBLIC SPEAKING and SPEAK UP and SPEAK OUT”.

PART OF THE SCENERY (A RELUCTANT BACKDROP)

Artist: Melissa Doherty (@melissamdoherty)

Location: 44 Queen Street South

Medium: Oil on canvas

Year: 2020

Melissa Doherty is an award-winning, mid-career artist and fine art graduate of the University of Waterloo. A recipient of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, her work has been exhibited at Christinerose Gallery in New York, the Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke, Galerie Art Mûr in Montreal and the University of Toronto. Her work is represented in public and private collections, including Sir Elton John and David Furnish, BMO, TELUS, RBC and The Progressive Art Collection in the US.

Doherty’s work explores the artiface and facade inherent in the landscaping of nature. In a society with increasingly virtual spaces, we are disconnected from the natural tactile world, according to the artist. The amplification of texture and tonality in Doherty’s work serves to create a visceral, grounding physical experience in the artist and the viewer. A painting is a virtual space, but it is also a tangible, substantial object, imbued with feeling and lived experience. The painting Part of the Scenery, with its tightly cropped subject, suggests nature as a reluctant backdrop.

*This project was made possible through the generous support of the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4).*

GRIZZLY BEAR

Artist: Chris Austin (@chrisaustinart)

Location: Halls Lane, 41 King Street West

Medium: Mixed media mural and spray paint

Year: 2014

Starting to paint at 15, Chris Austin used his work as a creative outlet, embracing originality. Austin is proud of his style, which has shaped his work throughout Downtown and the Region. Collaborating with artists of many facets, Austin has been able to broaden his network and creative reach to the City.

Grizzly bears play a large part in Austin’s work, allowing him to be able to tap into something that is frightening to him and to be able to embrace it with open arms. When this mural was created, it was intended to make the Downtown core more lively and vibrant with art. This piece is the second part of the bear series he created. Allowing for the quick fluid lines to flow through, captivating his style, it has become a staple to anyone who walks down Halls Lane.

DISSIPATE 41

Artist: Sarah Kernohan (@sarahkernohan)

Location: 41 King Street West

Medium: Pigment print on Hahnemühle museum etching paper

Year: 2017

Sarah Kernohan is a visual artist who makes drawings and collage-based works. She completed her MFA at the University of Waterloo in 2015 and her BFA in drawing and painting at OCAD University in 2008. Recent accomplishments include: residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, The Bothy Project in the UK, and exhibitions with Gallery Stratford and Galerie AVE in Montreal. Kernohan is a member of the Red Head Gallery in Toronto and she lives and works in Kitchener.

Kernohan’s work is rooted in memory, experiences of landscape, geological and weather-related phenomena. The artist bases her collages on the rocks found at the bottom of cliffs. These fragments — byproducts of gravity and erosion — can hypothetically be reassembled in place. According to Kernohan, making a perfect facsimile would be tedious. Kernohan builds her collages with photographic details of rocks that she splices, overlaps and rearranges. Some features line up perfectly, and others jog and fall out of step as she works. The artist looks for similar features, while attempting to develop a hypothetical extension of these small rocky surfaces and bring attention to subtle landscape elements.

*This project was made possible through the generous support of the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4).*

MADE SPACE

Artist: Logan MacDonald (@logo.gram)

Location: 50 Ontario Street

Medium: Digital photography

Year: 2018

Logan MacDonald is a queer visual artist and curator from Ktaqmkuk/Newfoundland. He identifies as a settler with mix-European/Mi’kmaq ancestry. MacDonald holds a MFA from York University (2010) and a BFA from Concordia University (2006). His artwork has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions worldwide. His work has also been featured in publications that include un Magazine, C Magazine, Canadian Art, LTTR and Documenta 12. He is currently Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Art at Waterloo University.

Made Space belongs to a larger photographic series where the artist frames bodily engagement with tree removal, to establish a metaphor intended to focus on how public spaces (particularly parks) seek to sanitize from dis, queer, and Indigenous engagement. The work questions the control of public spaces. Who decides how they are maintained, and what bodies are allowed to exist within them?

*This project was made possible through the generous support of the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4).*

THE CONDOR AND THE EAGLE

Artist: Alapinta (@alapinta.cl), Neruda Arts (@nerudaarts.ca)

Location: Halls Lane (on the side of Grand Trunk Saloon), 30 Ontario Street South

Medium: Mixed media mural

Year: 2014

This mural was created as a tribute to the Mapuche and Six Nation’s Peoples, the original caretakers of the land. Neruda Arts brought Alapinta (Chile), who came to Canada, and had many conversations with Six Nations and local Indigenous organizations, before beginning the mural. Conversations regarding strong storytelling and narration, represented with strong lines, vibrant colour and fluid movement were had. This mural engages the viewer and inspires imagination through imagery while celebrating cultural expression.

This massive mural has been a focus of Downtown since 2014. Alapinta has been an artist collective from La Araucanía region, Chile, since 2004, inspired by public art, graffiti and murals. They paint dreams and realities, taking art to various public and private spaces, focusing on health, education, culture, and heritage, among others.

This collaboration between these two groups showcases strong storytelling and narration. Accompanied by strong lines, movement, colour, shapes and gestalt, this massive mural has been a staple of Downtown Kitchener since 2014. Tapping into cultural references and imagery, this piece allows for imagination and inspiration to showcase at the forefront.

HALLS LANE N º 3

Artist: Bruno Smoky (@brunosmoky)

Location: 61 Halls Lane (behind DNA Screen Printing)

Medium: Mixed media mural and spray paint

Year: 2020

The Artist Bruno, also known as “Smoky”, has dedicated his life to visual art. Since childhood, drawing and creativity was always a part of his daily routine. In 2004 he began painting on walls with spray paint in Brasilandia, a precarious neighbourhood in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he grew up.

This piece is a hopeful message of growth and rebirth — a peaceful communion between technology and nature through a respectful balance, represented by the recycling symbol and careful use of colour. Promoting this Region’s existing conservation on technology for good, Smoky hopes to inspire the community to explore Halls Lane in Downtown Kitchener.

Smoky has gained international and professional recognition through his artistic journeys throughout Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Argentina, Paraguay, Sweden, USA, Germany, The Netherlands, England and Canada.

Smoky has worked in various organizations and NGO’s teaching the history of graffiti and its role in society to at-risk youth. He is currently the coordinator for the Essencia Arts Collective, and a founding member of Clandestinos Crew. Recently, Smoky moved to Toronto, Canada, together with his wife and artistic collaborator, Shalak, and continues his art practice.

HALLS LANE N º 2

Artist: Clandestinos Art (@clandestinosart)

Location: Halls Lane (behind Matter of Taste), 19 King Street West

Medium: Mixed media mural and spray paint

Year: 2020

Clandestinos Art (Shalak Attack and Bruno Smoky) explores the presence of nature and urban art context. This immersive mural aims to inspire those that encounter it, and bring forward discussions around the significance and power of the natural world, within an ever-changing built environment. This work is a reminder of the cycles, resilience and sacred power of nature. This mural project extends across the lane in a wonderfully different direction, while maintaining a singular verve of the artistic talent collectively called ‘Clandestinos’.

HALLS LANE N º 1

Artist: Shalak Attack (@shalakattack)

Location: Halls Lane (behind Matter of Taste), 119 King Street West Medium: Mixed media mural and spray paint

Year: 2020

Shalak Attack is a Canadian-Chilean visual artist dedicated to painting, muralism, spray paint urban art and canvas art. For over a decade, Attack has manifested her artistic expression on walls across the planet.

Attack’s practice fuses the spirit of South American muralism with contemporary street art. Her distinctive multi-layered and signature use of colour are emblematic of her unique style that inhabits the realm of psychedelic magical realism.

WE ARE THE SAME BEINGS

Artist: Brubey Hu (@brubeyhu), CAFKA (@cafkabiennial)

Location: 157 Halls Lane (behind Bobby O’Brien’s)

Medium: Digital illustration on vinyl

Year: 2020

Brubey Hu’s work explores architectural space, colour theory, memory and translation through the lens of duality both visually and conceptually. “A duality that exists within a body, does not necessarily exist as a pair of oppositions.” The pair can also be complementary to each other or live at the same time as coexistence.

Being bilingual and living-in-between, translation is a process that she frequently engages with. Through subtractive simplification, her works are her attempt to discuss the notions of consensus and reconciliation. They transcend flat images or physical space and objects, and document introspective moments.

Hu is a recent MFA graduate from the University of Waterloo. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art. Originally born in Xiamen, China, Hu moved to Vancouver in 2011, then to the United States. She has exhibited at Art Mûr in Montreal, Hui Yuan in Hefei, China and at Florida International University in Miami, US.

HOUSE FIRE (CHRONIC HEARTBREAK) & ALRIGHT

Artist: Tee Kundu (@lukitstee), CAFKA (@cafkabiennial)

Location: 157 Halls Lane (behind Bobby O’Brien’s)

Medium: Digital illustration on vinyl Year: 2020

Tee Kundu takes from personal and communal anecdotes and finds playfulness in stories of both joy and sorrow.

Living under an unsustainable system hurts, and Kundu has found that the only appropriate response to our current ways of living is heartbreak. It is a chronic condition, fuelled by an anxious, over-worked, exhausted population. Kundu feels they are part of this population, as are you. Finding humour in our stories is an act of resistance, and of defiance. It is an act of hope.

Heartbreak takes time, and love and patience. We can give each other that. And these stories, they feel they can give to you.

Tee Kundu is an interdisciplinary artist and illustrator. They mostly draw things. In addition, they often work in social practice, performance, zines, facilitation and they’re a DIY dabbler. They want to be a storyteller, and they want to be helpful.

REMEMBER TO

Artist: Racquel Rowe (@kellrowe), CAFKA (@cafkabiennial)

Location: 157 Halls Lane (behind Bobby O’Brien’s)

Medium: Digital illustration on vinyl

Year: 2020

Racquel Rowe’s practice explores the realm of gender politics and family structures. She primarily explores the family structures within the Caribbean, with particular emphasis on her own family and the matriarchs within it. Recently she spent a few months in Barbados and was able to reflect on certain practices that connect people through generations. Simple things can often be the hardest to remember, and Rowe seeks to elevate the kind of elementary actions we often take for granted but that can have a big impact on those around us.

Rowe is a multidisciplinary artist from the island of Barbados, who currently lives and works in the Kitchener-Waterloo Region. She completed her BA at the University of Guelph in 2013, and is currently in the second year of the MFA program at the University of Waterloo. Rowe has shown work in and around the GTA as well as the Caribbean.

KINSHIP

Artist: Alanah Jewell (@morning.star.designs), CAFKA (@cafkabiennial)

Location: Halls Lane

Medium: Mixed media mural

Year: 2020

Alanah Astehtsi Otsisohkwa Jewell is a bear clan artist from Oneida Nation of the Thames. She uses digital illustrations, acrylic paintings on wood and canvas and mural work to bring Indigenous art and representation to urban spaces. She is also a community organizer, and hosts Indigenous Art Markets in her home City of Kitchener, Ontario.

“Kinship is a reflection of two different, parallel worlds: one where we long to be connected to community, and one where we are fully immersed in community. I have lived in both of these worlds.”

“For those in the first world: you aren’t alone. The distance we feel from community is collective, and connects us to one another as a form of distant kinship. For those in the second world, we are connected based on our shared values. I hope Kinship bridges the gap between these worlds, and inspires people to reach out, build meaningful relationships and understand the importance of belonging to community.”

HALLS LANE N º 4

Artist: Stephanie Boutari (@stephboutari)

Location: Halls Lane (behind AOK Craft Beer + Arcade), 165 King Street West Medium: Spray paint and acrylic latex paint

Year: 2020

Stephanie Boutari is known for her large scale architecturally-inspired pieces, accompanied by vibrant colours and a wide range of depth and detail.

The design approach behind this artwork was driven by a desire to bring colour into public space, whilst making a subtle reference to digital technology — a nod to both the pixelated graphics of retro arcade games and the tech culture the area is known for. Leaf-like shapes appear to be ‘digitized’ through an abstraction of their form using geometric outlines and stripes: a visual juxtaposition of nature with technology.

Similarly, the colour palette contrasts shades of green with more vivid, saturated hues and artificial colours such as magenta, all against a black backdrop — a play on how we often view the world through a digital lens or screen.

The mural’s composition is centred on three large windows, working with the wall’s existing symmetry as if to be growing from within the middle window. The design intent here was to visually integrate the windows within the artwork while heightening the overall drama of the piece.

ZHASHAGI

Artist: Luke Swinson (@lukeswinsonart)

Location: 60 Charles Street West (Halls Lane side)

Medium: Digital illustration

Year: 2020

Luke Swinson is a visual artist with Anishinaabe roots from Kitchener, Ontario. A member of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation, Luke’s work reflects his desire to better understand and reclaim his Indigenous culture. He seeks to promote cultural education and preservation through his art projects.

Zhashagi means “Blue Heron” in Anishinaabemowin. Swinson has always felt a strong connection with the Heron throughout his life. Their confidence, independence and beauty have been a great source of inspiration to him. Zhashagi, along with much of his art, represents the relationship he has with his culture. As Swinson creates, he reads and learns about the subject of his art through the lens of Anishinaabe people. Swinson uses bold colours and shapes to make his art easy for others to understand and connect with. Swinson’s goal is that his artwork will develop and be nourished along with his understanding of Anishinaabe tradition and language.

AOK ONIIJAANIW (DOE)

Artist: August & Luke Swinson (@augustillustrated & @lukeswinsonart)

Location: 154 King Street West (Halls Lane)

Medium: Exterior acrylic paint

Year: 2021

August Swinson grew up on the small Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation reserve. Early memories of life on the reserve have influenced his work as an illustrator. Swinson remembers nostalgic images of chopping and carrying wood and water, canoeing with his Grandfather or scrambling over rock with his siblings on the islands that dot the lakes of the Kawarthas. With a career in graphic design, he now spends time in his studio located in Kitchener.

Luke Swinson is a visual artist with Anishinaabe roots from Kitchener, Ontario. A member of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation, Swinson’s work reflects his desire to better understand and reclaim his Indigenous culture. He seeks to promote cultural education and preservation through his art projects.

A collaboration between August and Luke Swinson. Both artists are heavily inspired by nature and their Indigenous heritage. The stylized landscape represents the peaceful countryside of their native land.

TOAD TOUCH

Artist: Annie Dunning (@annie.e.dunning )

Location: 44 Gaukel Street

Medium: Bronze

Year: 2021

Annie Dunning is an artist and educator based in Guelph, Ont. She maintains a multidisciplinary practice, currently focused on sound-sculpture. Conceptually, her work investigates areas of cultural overlap between human and non-human species. With support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, she has produced and shown work across Canada and abroad. Dunning is currently pursuing a PhD in the visual arts program at York University.

Toad Touch is an ongoing project that will include performance, video and sound compositions in its final iteration. At the centre of this work are two, human-sized bronze toads that invite the viewer to consider sensory experience across species. What can we learn about ourselves and the world by considering the experiences of the non-human? These sculptures have a mythic quality intended to counter the western hierarchy that places humans above other creatures. Polished areas of the sculptures invite touch, just as public sculptures all over the world are touched by passersby to absorb some form of good fortune.

*This project was made possible through the generous support of the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4).*

Artist: Simone Cotrell @patriciacsimone

Location: 44 Gaukel Creative Workspace

Medium: Acrylic paint and gel medium

Year: 2022

Afro-Caribbean artist Simone Cotrell is a black contemporary abstract and realist painter from Waterloo Region. Her expressive, colourful paintings pay homage to her African heritage, Caribbean culture and various people and children within the BIPOC community.

“Mended” is a symbol of togetherness, being joint as one, in company of and being of many. There is no direct subject, and instead have many “little people” with no specifications. Cotrell felt this meaning works well for 44 Gaukel because it is a space where many come together – something like a well-mended community in a sense.

*Supported by @44gaukelarts*

IN THE KEEP OF CHANGE

Artist: Vincent Marcone | My Pet Skeleton (@theartofmyoetskeleton)

Location: 44 Gaukel Creative Workspace

Medium: Digital illustration on vinyl

Year: 2020

44 Gaukel Creative Workspace has had many functions, many faces and stood through many seasons. Students, entrepreneurs, scientists and artists have all used this space, and the constant that binds their experiences here is a spirit of creation. Three animals, native to the area, were chosen to symbolize the successful ingredients that live within 44 Gaukel. Each animal flourishes, ages, dies and is born again to illustrate the function of this transformative space.

RAVEN = intelligence | adaptation | creation

FOX = playfulness | agility | cunning

RABBIT = abundance | prosperity | energy

My Pet Skeleton is the pseudonym of graphic artist Vincent Marcone. He developed a unique style by mixing his affections for the 600-year-old art of intaglio printmaking and computer graphics. He has painted album covers, designed intricate online worlds and directed weirdo music videos that have won awards — from places as diverse as the Emmys, the Junos, and even a Cannes Film Festival nomination for his short film, “The Facts in the Case of Mister Hollow.”

CITY OWAYSEUG

Artist: Luke Swinson (@lukeswinsonart)

Photographer: Taylor Jones (@someone)

Location: Gaukel Street (between Joseph and Charles Street)

Medium: Mixed media mural

Year: 2020

Luke Swinson is a visual artist with Anishinaabe roots from Kitchener, Ontario. A member of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation, Luke’s work reflects his desire to better understand and reclaim his Indigenous culture. He seeks to promote cultural education and preservation through his art projects.

City Owayseug which means “city animals” in Anishinaabemowin is a reminder, in the heart of the city, of the relationship and responsibility we have to nature. Using the street as a canvas, Swinson’s art contributes to an evolving transition of Gaukel Street into a pedestrian-first street and public space.

RAINBOW WALKWAY

Location: Crosswalk at Gaukel and Joseph Street

Medium: Thermoplastic road paint

Year: 2018

Created during PRIDE 2018, outside of Victoria Park entrance, this walkway celebrates the inclusion of the LGBTQ community. It showcases the vibrant colours of the rainbow in bold thick lines and has become a signifier for everyone in the Downtown community.

TRANSGENDER PRIDE FLAG WALKWAY

Location: Crosswalk at Gaukel and Joseph Street

Medium: Thermoplastic road paint

Year: 2022

Installed by the City of Kitchener, the Transgender Crosswalk is located at Joseph and Gaukel streets, near the entrance to Victoria Park. The crosswalk was installed with the intent to create a sense of inclusion and belonging in the city for all voices, particularly for voices that have been marginalized.

The transgender crosswalk was installed, in ealy Novemeber 2021, ahead of the Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20, which honours transgender people lost to violence.

HONOURARY TRIBUTE FOR EVERY CHILD MATTERS - FOOTPRINTS

Artist: Sheena Merling & The Every Child Matters Crosswalk Committee

@everychildmatters_crosswalk

Location: Victoria Park

Medium: Paint

Year: 2022

Sheena (Bin-no-g Man-na-doe Quay - Spirit of the Children) is Bear Clan and calls Kitchener home. She is the leader of a resident-led group of Indigenous community members and allies that shared a vision of bringing a decorative Every Child Matters crosswalk to Victoria Park as part of a tribute to honour the children who were lost and those who still live with the generational trauma caused by Canada’s Residential School System. Sheena’s group was awarded a LoveMyHood Matching Grant from the City of Kitchener to support bringing this vision to life.

As part of this honorary tribute, orange footprints have been painted throughout Victoria Park representing each child that died at a residential school in Canada. In laying these footprints with community members, Sheena and her team have sparked important conversations to help raise awareness and educate the community about the Every Child Matters movement and the impact of residential schools in Canada. The footprints lead to the eventual location of the first Every Child Matters crosswalk in Canada to be officially endorsed by the Orange Shirt Society. The crosswalk will be unveiled to the community in September 2022, in time for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

THE LUGGAGE PROJECT

Artist: Ernest Daetwyler

Location: Victoria Park (Gaukel Street entrance)

Medium: Indiana limestone, bronze

Year: 2008

Eight carved sculptures modelled after historic luggage pieces (to scale) are placed beside paths and in fountains.

Daetwyler used luggage to symbolize the perspective of travellers and immigrants representing different periods in our past. The handles and labels of the luggage are cast in bronze. Each label references personal statements of Kitchener residents from different cultural backgrounds.

RECOGNIZE EVERYONE

Artist: Lucy Pullen (@projectsandobjects), CAFKA (@cafkabiennial)

Location: North Parking lot (Charles Street entrance), 27 Gaukel Street

Medium: Mixed media on metal staircase

Year: 2018

Born in Montreal, Canada, Lucy Pullen is an artist based in New York. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions across Canada and the United States. In collaboration with Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area (CAFK+A) a non-profit, artist-run organization that presents a free biennial exhibition of contemporary art in the public spaces of the City of Kitchener and across the Region of Waterloo.

Pullen produced a polychromatic star-burst mural that covers the elevator shaft and the wrap-around fire escape on 27 Gaukel Street in Kitchener. The work is effectively a walk-in mural, that envelopes the visitor on all sides. The thematic title of the mural and of CAFKA.18, RECOGNIZE EVERYONE began as a game between friends. While on a trip together, they challenged themselves to find the familiar in the strange. There are no rules other than to recognize an acquaintance in the face or demeanour of a stranger. The point is the reimagining of public life.

Cited from cafka.org

THE TILE PROJECT

Artist: Carol Bradley

Location: The Working Centre (Charles Street), 58 Queen Street South

Medium: Terracotta tiles

Year: 1996

The Tile Project is a community-based art venture facilitated in 1996 by Carol Bradley. As part of the City of Kitchener’s Artist in Residence program, it proposes a tool to make our journey an opportunity to learn from each other and create a dialogue among its participants and audience.

Each participant was given some clay which they rolled into a square tile and then wrote, painted or sculpted anything they wished onto its surface. The individual tiles were then placed side-by-side to create a collective, quilt-like mosaic. The process began and ended over the course of several weekends in the fall of that year, and saw over 260 pairs of busy hands working together to create delicately shaped pieces of their identity on a terracotta tile. The Tile Project displays community art as a way of seeing, documenting and engaging in critical reflection to stimulate relationships among participants and viewers.

THE VALUE OF ONE THE POWER OF MANY

Artist: Marilyn Koop

Location: Queen and Charles Street, 84 Queen Street South Medium: Mixed media mural on plywood

This simple, yet powerful piece showcases multiple stories within one frame. Marilyn Koop captured a simplistic style to convey strong emotion through relatability, togetherness and the importance of sharing. Peaking into four windows, the viewer gets a glimpse of “the power of many”, paired with a colour palette that is warm and inviting. The viewer can’t help but be influenced by this mural to lean on each other.

PEDESTRIAN

Artist: Ted Fullerton

Location: Municipal Parking Garage at Benton and Charles Street

Medium: Bronze and composite

Year: 2010 Composite medium (series of six figures) responding directly to the goal of promoting pedestrian first values.

This site-specific commissioned sculpture installation refers to the City of Kitchener’s goal of promoting pedestrian-first values and “the purpose of place”. The sculpture is in association with the intent of the Diamond Schmitt Architects’ design of a multi-level parking facility. Its symbolic reference is to inspire optimism, aspiration, limitless possibilities and the importance of the independent individual purpose towards the future. It is a work that has been referenced as being “existential”, which refers to the intricacies of human existence.

BLUEBERRY PINE

Artist: Bruce Herchenrader (www.bruceherchenrader.com)

Location: 19 King Street East (Halls Lane)

Medium: Painting in oils, watercolours and print making using serigraphy

Year: 2022

Bruce Herchenrader was born in Kitchener in 1949 and started painting in 1973. He works in oil, watercolour and print making using serigraphy as his medium. Herchenrader’s high-realism landscape works hang in numerous corporate and public collections.

This 44 x 52 inch portrait of a solitary pine is so wonderfully shaped by its years of bargaining out an existence with the granite, the sun and the seasons. There is a winter gale howling across the white frozen lake buffeting it. Then the spring’s gushing deluges of moisture push new growth, only to be stilled by June. July’s summer miserly droughts its growth again — stilted, twisting it’s limbs, forming what has, for the artist, become a sculpted beauty.

*This project was made possible through the generous support of the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4).*

SYNERGY

Artist: Clear Eyes Collective (@cleareyescollective)

Location: KW Wholesale, 27 Scott Street

Medium: Spray paint

Year: 2022

CLEAR EYES COLLECTIVE is a mural crew based out of Hamilton, Ontario. Made up of members Darian Poisson, Adam Bates and Josh Kellett, their mission is to integrate the mysterious power of art into the plain cityscape, transforming ordinary spaces into an immersive gallery. Their approach to public art has always been rooted in creating vibrant visual environments that connect and uplift the community at large.

The trio have been painting large-scale murals as a team for 6+ years, and in that time, they have had the opportunity to partner with local businesses, festivals, different municipalities/cities, and corporations. They take tremendous care to make sure their designs are tailored to each specific project, while always maintaining a vibrant and bold style that naturally comes out of their collaborations.

As a collective, we explore the mysterious power of visual art through painting murals, with a focus on converting city streets into an immersive gallery. With spray paint as our primary tool, our work is inspired by tropical themes, musical experiences and the human connection. As artists who are primarily painting walls in a public space, we place great value in the subtle way that murals can enhance the visual environment of a neighbourhood. Our goal with this design is to draw attention to the harmony that exists between the urban and natural landscape and compliment the sense of community that Kitchener already has to offer. We aim to create a landmark that locals would be proud to have in their neighbourhood, while simultaneously welcoming a bright future.

*This project was made possible through the generous support of the Regional Tourism Organization 4 Inc. (RTO4).*

JOY

Artist: Benhaz Fatemi (@behnazfaatemi)

Location: Kitchener Market, 300 King Street East (Cedar Street side)

Medium: Acrylic Paint

Year: 2022

When Behnaz Fatemi first immigrated from Iran to Canada in 2018, Fatemi found it challenging to make visual connections with her new environment – everything was new and different. Fatemi found visiting the Kitchener Market to be healing, as it felt familiar to the markets Fatemi used to frequent in Iran. A graduate from the University of Guilan, Iran, with a BFA in Studio Arts, Fatemi now lives in Waterloo Region and is on her way to completing an MFA at the University of Waterloo. Fatemi is an interdisciplinary artist who works across various mediums and techniques: mainly in drawing, sculpture, installation and performance. Fatemi’s work investigates the deep connection between humans and their behaviours. Fatemi’s most recent piece, Joy, which is located at the Kitchener Market, shows just that. The piece brings the spirit of one’s Market rituals to life, while also celebrating the Market’s rich diversity. The series of shopping bags in Fatemi’s mural are held by diverse hands, and the bags themselves are containing items of significance to various cultures, signifying that the Kitchener Market can act as a unifying space for a community of such unique and individualized lived experiences.

“The Kitchener Market, with its welcoming, diverse, and vibrant atmosphere, resembled the Grand Bazaar in Esfahan, the city I was born in and had lived in before immigration. Visiting the Kitchener Market every few weeks eventually became a ritual for me. Shopping, walking, and people-watching at the Market promoted my healing, inculcating a sense of belonging into my mind.”

IN THE CLOUDS

Artist: Brie Pointer (@briepointer)

Location: Ellison’s Bistro, 14 Charles Street West

Medium: Photography

Year: 2020 Brie Pointer is a multidisciplinary artist. As an art director, brand designer and illustrator by trade, her work can be refined and experimental in both digital and traditional mediums.

This colour series was created initially as social photography for Wayward Farm, a small-scale market farm run by Brie Pointer and her partner in Baden. The bold, bright and fun colours accentuate the true beauty of freshly-picked, raw vegetables. Don’t forget to eat your veggies! “Initially, the series was going to be called, Eat The Rainbow, but we didn’t want to be sued by Skittles (even though this rainbow is way more delicious!)”

QUEUING TO WAIT

Artist: Sherry Czekus (@sherryczekus)

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Oil on canvas

Year: 2019

Sherry Czekus is a Canadian painter based in Waterloo, ON. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Western University and a Bachelor of Arts with Studio Specialization from the University of Waterloo. The public domain, specifically the city, is a site of observation of urban crowd culture and its participants, that Czekus explores through painting.

“Making my paintings begins with becoming one of the crowd as part of the everyday experience. On busy city sidewalks, with my camera, I make my source images of the urban crowd and its figurative gestures, intersections and spaces in between its members. Since the emergence of Flâneurism and urban culture in 19th century Europe, the online social frontier has recently developed and has changed our visual perception of the physical crowd experience. Painting as a conceptual medium simultaneously expands and collapses these moments I capture as an enriched site of knowledge about us as a collective. Straddling the boundaries of representation and abstraction, I allow the photographic language to give way to the language of painting on my canvasses.”

CONVERGENCE SCREEN TEST 1

Artist: Lauren Prousky (@laurenprousky)

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Digital drawing

Year: 2021

Lauren Prousky is a Kitchener-based multidisciplinary artist, writer and curator. Prousky’s work spans a variety of topics and generally consists of a fluctuating rotation of three to five projects. These currently include the aesthetics and linguistics of cultural Judaism, sudoku puzzles as a type of generative art, cleanliness as something subjective and political and spontaneous performances in intimate settings. She also likes cuttlefish, linguistics and art you can touch.

Prousky’s work broadly explores interconnected narratives through the language of collections and repetition. Prousky is interested in the power of multitudes and accumulation — specifically, how stuff deemed “extra” moves, seeps, trickles, multiplies, organizes, rebels, conforms, shrinks or expands within an established environment.

INNER REFLECTION

Artist: Miranda Herdman

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Procreate on iPad

Year: 2021

Miranda Herdman has been doing art for as long as she can remember. Herdman has been drawn (pun intended?) to the arts since she was a child, usually working within Fine Arts in mainly pencil and realism. In high school, Herdman was introduced to computers and graphic design and was hooked. A few years ago she discovered that work could be created on an iPad and Herdman has been experimenting ever since!

This digital art piece is a glimpse at the basic emotions people see in the mirror when they look at themselves. Emotions are complex and ever-shifting, especially when you’re viewing yourself. Mirrors reflect back what everyone sees played across your face on a daily basis. Do you find yourself staring in the mirror at night and seeing these emotions?

HEALTHY HABIT

Artist: Brie Pointer (@briepointer)

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Digital illustration

Year: 2021 Brie Pointer is a multidisciplinary artist. As an art director, brand designer and illustrator by trade, her work can be refined and experimental in both digital and traditional mediums.

“Healthy Habit are mirrored from one another. Our community helps to inspire, share, and encourage good food. Food is our future. Let’s eat well to live well.”

THREAD

Artist: LOF Photography (@lofphotography)

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Photography

Year: 2021

10 years ago, Lawrence O. Fajardo picked up a DSLR camera for his first solo trip, and returned home with a new vision. Fascinated by the medium’s simple yet strong emotion, his self-taught focus became his subjects’ expressions and inner passions. Not wanting to tread the same waters as other photographers, O. Fajardo challenged himself to use this new medium to catch the same expressions of his subjects while integrating design concepts with his unique perspective on human nature. O. Fajardo finds life through photography in even the most mundane — in the excitement of a single moment, and in the flavours of the world around him.

“What do we miss when we traverse from point A to point B every day in the city? My photographs are my way of capturing the often underappreciated simplicity of our urban environments. As our lives get busier and more complicated, mostly because of technology, I have gone ambling around the city with no destination during the nocturnal hour when there is a sense of quiet and peace, to capture a moment in time. I look for low-angle shots to give me a different perspective of lines, lights and shadows during one of the quietest hours of the day, looking to turn it into a visual indulgence. I feel compelled to slow down, observe, step back and become attuned to what we usually miss in our daily lives.”

QUAIL AND DUMPLINGS

Artist: Kat Hernden (@kathernden)

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Acrylic and embroidery thread on canvas

Year: 2020 Kat Hernden is a self-taught artist who studied Semiotics, Media Analysis, Communications, English and Education at the University of Toronto. Hernden is also a member of Art$Pay and Button Factory Arts. She currently lives, mothers, teaches and creates out of Globe Studios, in Downtown Kitchener.

The self-taught Kitchener-based artist Kat Hernden creates geometric works of art using acrylics and embroidery thread on canvas. Her work is inspired by the patterns found in nature, in architecture and on bathroom floors. Hernden uses masking techniques when applying the paint to the canvas and this allows her to achieve those complex geometric shapes and radial patterns. Most of the linework is then embroidered. Using long stitches, Hernden creates perfectly straight lines that coalesce and diverge throughout the composition. Variations in value are created by the proximity of the threads. The application of traditional craft processes to the canvas (a spot usually reserved for painting) challenges the conventional notions of what qualifies as art and what qualifies as craft. It also adds a human, feminine touch to what otherwise could be perceived as sterile or digital.

IN THIS PLACE

Artist: Lucy Bilson (@LucyBilsonDesign)

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Typographic poster

Year: 2021

Lucy Bilson is a designer, researcher and educator working at the periphery of contemporary graphic design practice. In addition to operating Lucy Bilson Design, Bilson’s creative practice explores the interdisciplinary space between design and art, often using her work to contest the boundaries of contemporary practice.

What does it mean to be in Canada, in this place, on this land? This installation explores the multiplicity of experiences and perspectives, which speak to what it means to be here, as the nation continues to reflect on the complex issue of its collective identity. How are our views of this place shaped by our journeys through this place? What ideas and hopes do we have for our community and identity as we look to the future? Responses were collected from the community about what it means to be here — some celebratory, some critical and some reflective. Each poster represents a single thought from one of the community responses. Together, they form a visual collection that reflects the diversity of views our community holds. There are moments of stark contrast as well as emergent themes, all reflecting the complex and ever-changing nature of what this place means to the people who inhabit it.

LOVE

Artist: Robin Lindner Design (@rlindner.design)

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Digital

Year: 2021

Robin Lindner is a designer who gains inspiration from the environments around her. Nature plays a huge role in Lindner’s creative process, along with her curiosity and love for unique experiences.

This was created for anyone who needs this right now: Sending love <3

A HOME WITHIN A HOME

Artist: Lupita Guerrero (@lupitague.art)

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Digital illustration

Year: 2021

Lupita Guerrero is a multidisciplinary Canadian-Nicaraguan artist and a recent graduate from the University of Waterloo, majoring in Fine Arts with a minor in Sociology. Her work primarily consists of the handmade, such as traditional painting, drawing and textiles, though she also practices photography and film. Lupita was the recipient of the 2021 Curator’s Choice Award in her graduating class and showcased her work in Hamilton Artists Inc.’s exhibition Ignition9 earlier this year.

As a daughter of immigrants, Guerrero’s work is largely inspired by personal narratives and rooted in the diasporic experience that explores language, culture, and family dynamics. Through her art, Guerrero aims to advocate for diversity and elevate political topics faced by minorities today. A Home within a Home is influenced by intimate teaching moments within her household and encounters in Kitchener’s community that have shaped her understanding of “home”, while also acknowledging migrant workers in the agricultural sector. Identity and belonging are complex concepts that are often associated with location but can instead be a space of acceptance, comfort and growth.

STUCK BETWEEN

Artist: Amy Esplen (@amy_esplen)

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Digital - 3D design

Year: 2021

Amy Esplen is a multidisciplinary designer inspired by obscurity and using what she has on hand to create, express and explore new perspectives. Over the last two years Esplen has used art and design to express how she feels about the balancing act that is pandemic/lockdown life. Esplen has been using 3D design to visualize feelings of the artist’s own balancing acts, as well as those around her that she admires.

Stuck Between: When you are stuck between a hairy situation and a furry one.

SELF DISCOVERY

Artist: Senara Dowrick (@senarasart)

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Procreate & illustrator

Year: 2021

Senara Dowrick, a 17-year-old artist and designer, who just started her year in the Advanced Diploma Graphic Design Program at Conestoga College. Dowrick has always been passionate about art and enjoys expressing her feelings through creativity. Dowrick’s work is meant to inspire and make people look at the world in a different way.

“In my piece Self Discovery, I created a frog discovering herself through the reflection of her own world. I produced this piece with Procreate and Adobe Illustrator using fun, bright colours to brighten up the environment. Throughout the process, I focused on making the frog the main centre of focus so that others might interpret the frog’s self-discovery in their own unique way. I want people to look at my piece and be able to reflect on it personally and be able to relate to or be inspired by it.”

COMPARISON

Artist: Amy Esplen (@amy_esplen)

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Digital - 3D design

Year: 2021

Amy Esplen is a multidisciplinary designer inspired by obscurity and using what she has on hand to create, express and explore new perspectives. Over the last two years Esplen has used art and design to express how she feels about the balancing act that is pandemic/lockdown life. Esplen has been using 3D design to visualize feelings of the artist’s own balancing acts, as well as those around her that she admires.

Comparison: Comparing your balancing act to others never made anything easier.

START CREATING

Artist: Sara Nieto (@saranietoillustration)

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop

Year: 2021

Sara Nieto is an Ecuadorian illustrator, multimedia designer and photographer with a passion for storytelling and illustration, currently living in Kitchener, Ontario. Nieto has a degree in audiovisual production with experience working for advertising companies and as a freelance visual communicator. Nieto’s practice consists of designing unique material for new brands and general audiences. One of Nato’s Goals is to create interactive and meaningful pieces for the community, unifying digital skills with analog techniques.

This piece was based on feelings taken from self-growth in a new, but welcoming environment, combining analog methods as the paper textures digital painting.

“My work exists between emotions and concepts from each project, combining them in a surreal scene. I find it fascinating to explore different techniques, colours, shapes, and textures — going from ink shadows to papercraft art, trying to communicate different feelings. My artistic approach is mostly socio-cultural through mental health and positive education. Music, photography, and collecting nature treasures are often part of my creative process as well. I enjoy being able to create something for people to express and interpret themselves through it.”

YOU COULD BE HERE (A)

Artist: Derek Koehler

Location: Heit & Hope Lane

Medium: Digital image

Year: 2021

Derek Koehler is a visual artist based in Kitchener and a mature, part-time Fine Arts student at the University of Waterloo. Much of his work is planned and composed digitally. Koehler works mainly in printmaking, painting, and drawing and is interested in conceptual, process-based approaches to making art. Subjects that interest him include the built environment, industrial and economic systems, history, nostalgia, and various forms of uncertainty.

YOU COULD BE HERE (B)

This work, which highlights aspirations, counterfactuals, and historical contingencies as they pertain to the built environment, is based on two site-specific archival images:

A. The 1912 Leavitt Plan for Kitchener (then Berlin) and Waterloo. Under this plan, which was never implemented, the area surrounding Heit and Hope Lanes would have been a public park, called Union Station Plaza, fronting a relocated rail station.

B. A 1958 photo of the Mitchell Button Factory at 97 Victoria St. N., which was built around 1927 and — after Mitchell Button became Mitchell Plastics and outgrew this location — now houses St. John’s Kitchen.

Thank you for participating in the DTK Art Walk!

It is with deep and sincere gratitude that we thank our partners for their ongoing support that allowed us to bring this experience to life in such a short time. We applaud the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, under the direction of Shirley Madill, and the building owners that understood our vision and provided the space for these creative installments.

To the talented artists behind these pieces — your dedication and commitment to your craft have brought joy and life to the heart of our Downtown. Thank you for creating lasting memories for this community.

We would love to hear from you — find us on social media @dtkitchener and feel free to share your experiences and feedback.

With love from,

The Businesses of Downtown Kitchener

#DTKArtWalk | @DTKitchener

We acknowledge that Downtown Kitchener is situated on land that is the traditional home of the Haudenosaunee (Ho-deh-no-show-nee), Anishinaabe (Ah-nish-nah-bay) and Neutral People.

We recognize and deeply appreciate their historic connection to this place.

We also recognize the contributions Indigenous peoples have made in shaping and strengthening this community.

We are grateful for the opportunity to meet here and re-affirm our collective commitment to make the promise and the challenge of Truth and Reconciliation real in our community.

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